Accident occurred on Colorado 140 north of N.M. line

JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald
Fort Lewis Mesa Fire Protection District firefighters and Durango Fire & Rescue Authority personnel remove Craig Robinson of Gallup, N.M., who was pinned in the cab of his pickup after colliding with a car on Colorado Highway 140, south of Redmesa. The woman driving the northbound car, Dacia D. Roark, of Farmington was killed after she crossed the center line and hit the truck head-on. Robinson was listed in good condition Monday night at Mercy Regional Medical Center.

JERRY McBRIDE/Durango Herald
Fort Lewis Mesa Fire Protection District firefighters and Durango Fire & Rescue Authority personnel remove Craig Robinson of Gallup, N.M., who was pinned in the cab of his pickup after colliding with a car on Colorado Highway 140, south of Redmesa. The woman driving the northbound car, Dacia D. Roark, of Farmington was killed after she crossed the center line and hit the truck head-on. Robinson was listed in good condition Monday night at Mercy Regional Medical Center.

REDMESA – A Farmington woman was killed in a head-on car crash Monday on Colorado Highway 140, about 3˝ miles north of the New Mexico line.

The crash occurred on a curve about 4:20 p.m., when a white 1999 Pontiac Grand Am, driven in the northbound lane by 30-year-old Dacia D. Roark, crossed the center line and slammed head-on into a white 2001 Toyota Tacoma pickup traveling in the southbound lane, according to drivers who arrived on scene shortly after it occurred and a report by the Colorado State Patrol.

Roark was pronounced dead at the scene. The passenger in her car, Willie Navarette, 3, was flown to the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center in Albuquerque with serious injuries, Trooper Jonathan Silver said. UNM Health Sciences Center Media Relations manager Luke Frank confirmed Willie was in serious condition Monday night.

Neither Roark nor Willie were wearing seat belts, and Willie was not restrained in a child seat, Capt. Adrian Driscoll, the new commander of the Region 5 District of the Colorado State Patrol said.

“That’s the third death with people not wearing seat belts since I got here 2˝ weeks ago,” he said. “We’re always concerned about that, and I hope it calms down.”

Marlon Hopper of Breen said the man in the pickup was awake and alert moments after the accident. He is a Gallup, N.M., resident, Craig Robinson, 42. David Bruzzese, spokesman for Mercy Regional Medical Center, where Robinson was transported, said Robinson was in good condition Monday night.

Roark, appeared to be pregnant, Hopper said.

Both Roark and Robinson had to be extricated from their vehicles by emergency personnel, who responded from both Fort Lewis Mesa Fire Protection District and the Durango Fire & Rescue Authority.

“He just didn’t have room to get out of there,” Hopper said of Robinson. “He said she was way across the center line, and he didn’t have room to get out of the way.”